Interrupting our conversation, I passed this observation along to my friend. She responded with full feminine amusement, and smiling skeptically, reminded me of the other 300 people present; pointing out quite validly, my rather spectacular history of being totally non-psychic. However, feeling uncannily certain about my prediction, I bet her three bottles of champagne to her one that we would win; delighting in my irrational impetuosity, she took the wager.

The films ended; "Cosmic Consciousness" left something to be desired — or should I say, experienced? The jovial master of ceremonies, Merle Gould, drew the first two slips — and you guessed it — the first name was mine. Striding on stage to receive my prize, I registered only mild disappointment when I heard the nature of my good fortune . . . a year's subscription to the Cosmic Star, a monthly newspaper new to me, covering spiritual, psychic and occult topics.

Due to the strange circumstances surrounding this unprecedented windfall, I searched each new issue assiduously, feeling sure there would be some item of especial esoteric significance for my own spiritual development. Much to my disappointment, the monthly investigation turned up naught. One day, six months later, I returned home thinking about ways to communicate Baba's anti-drug message to the public in a straightforward manner. I left the problem cooking in my subconscious, while I ate dinner and read the latest Cosmic Star - by this time, for entertainment, not enlightenment! For I had found the whole seed and entire blossom of Wisdom and Truth in Baba's writings.

After putting down the paper, I went back to thinking about the communication challenge — and then realized with a start that my "useless" door prize might well be a perfect organ for a frank article on Baba and psychedelics. With a combination of inner laughter and outer goose-pimples, I recognized the probable significance of that most unusual night six months earlier.

Needless to say, my LSD article was accepted by the Star — (August and September, 1966) — which has also printed other pieces about Baba. To say this particular series of events was arranged by Baba would be presumptions. Yet, to me, it makes such elegant sense!

Radio Central

Starting another improbable set of circumstances, a teacher in a private school in Northern Arizona saw my first LSD article in the Cosmic Star and invited me to speak on LSD at his school. His invitation caught up with me in Myrtle Beach, just as "coincidently" I was preparing to embark on an auto trip across the country. It "just so happened " that my new route, having been changed because of another improbable opportunity to appear on radio in Dallas, was a mere hour out of the way from the school.